Feel free to say nothing's definite until proof is in hand. But go ahead and hedge toward the site of the disaster and multiple bungled plug attempts as the *overwhelmingly likely* source, rather than just sarcastically air-quoting 'mysterious' and not-so-subtly hinting toward the Deepwater Horizon well.

The platform leak was from an Apache platform, and I think it was approximately 73 gallons of oil. What outsiders may not know that that every leak, even one as small as 73 gallons, has to be reported. As for the "sheen," it may have been diesel from a vessel. If we get a major press story every time any drop of oil gets released, we won't have enough bandwidth to look at pictures like that hot blond right above this post.

T-Boy:The platform leak was from an Apache platform, and I think it was approximately 73 gallons of oil. What outsiders may not know that that every leak, even one as small as 73 gallons, has to be reported. As for the "sheen," it may have been diesel from a vessel. If we get a major press story every time any drop of oil gets released, we won't have enough bandwidth to look at pictures like that hot blond right above this post.

T-Boy:The platform leak was from an Apache platform, and I think it was approximately 73 gallons of oil. What outsiders may not know that that every leak, even one as small as 73 gallons, has to be reported. As for the "sheen," it may have been diesel from a vessel. If we get a major press story every time any drop of oil gets released, we won't have enough bandwidth to look at pictures like that hot blond right above this post.

T-Boy:The platform leak was from an Apache platform, and I think it was approximately 73 gallons of oil. What outsiders may not know that that every leak, even one as small as 73 gallons, has to be reported. As for the "sheen," it may have been diesel from a vessel. If we get a major press story every time any drop of oil gets released, we won't have enough bandwidth to look at pictures like that hot blond right above this post.

Fair enough. But they found this on 9/16. Why'd it take 19 days for the press to hear about it? Or maybe they did hear about it earlier and no one cared until it was a slow news day.

Feel free to say nothing's definite until proof is in hand. But go ahead and hedge toward the site of the disaster and multiple bungled plug attempts as the *overwhelmingly likely* source, rather than just sarcastically air-quoting 'mysterious' and not-so-subtly hinting toward the Deepwater Horizon well.

Don't be paranoid. It's a coincidence. The oil companies are looking for the real cause.

T-Boy:The platform leak was from an Apache platform, and I think it was approximately 73 gallons of oil. What outsiders may not know that that every leak, even one as small as 73 gallons, has to be reported. As for the "sheen," it may have been diesel from a vessel. If we get a major press story every time any drop of oil gets released, we won't have enough bandwidth to look at pictures like that hot blond right above this post.

As someone who works for big oil, sheens are nothing new nor are they uncommon. I do not want to trivialize the issue, but a very small amount of any number of substances can create a sheen over a mile is size. The major companies do seriously try to prevent any spill from happenning, no matter what you or CNN think. The smaller independent oil companies are the biggest offenders of breaking regulations simply because they don't have the money to keep up with them all, as it is very expensive to keep double barriers in place over everything that can possibly go wrong. However if a spill does happen my company reports it right away. Many times we have been fined for things that were not our fault, but we were the closest operator so we got blamed. An example is when I was offshore and a sheen was spotted near my platform. The chemical was tested and proven not to have come from my platform, but since no other facility was in the area we got picked to pay the fine. I am not saying that big oil isn't gulity of causing harm, but a lot of the blame that goes towards big oil is unfounded. The Gulf of Mexico is a major shipping center and fishing area, but nobody thinks to ask the cargo or fishing vessels if they are in compliance with regulations. I live on the gulf coast and will likely be there for the rest of my life. I don't want to see it damaged any more than any of you and neither do my co-workers. Big oil has its faults, but we are not the devils that many people make us out to be. I will probably get attacked here and accused of being satan, but I don't care, someone needs to speak up for the industry.

balfourk:As someone who works for big oil, sheens are nothing new nor are they uncommon. I do not want to trivialize the issue, but a very small amount of any number of substances can create a sheen over a mile is size. The major companies do seriously try to prevent any spill from happenning, no matter what you or CNN think. The smaller independent oil companies are the biggest offenders of breaking regulations simply because they don't have the money to keep up with them all, as it is very expensive to keep double barriers in place over everything that can possibly go wrong. However if a spill does happen my company reports it right away. Many times we have been fined for things that were not our fault, but we were the closest operator so we got blamed. An example is when I was offshore and a sheen was spotted near my platform. The chemical was tested and proven not to have come from my platform, but since no other facility was in the area we got picked to pay the fine. I am not saying that big oil isn't gulity of causing harm, but a lot of the blame that goes towards big oil is unfounded. The Gulf of Mexico is a major shipping center and fishing area, but nobody thinks to ask the cargo or fishing vessels if they are in compliance with regulations. I live on the gulf coast and will likely be there for the rest of my life. I don't want to see it damaged any more than any of you and neither do my co-workers. Big oil has its faults, but we are not the devils that many people make us out to be. I will probably get attacked here and accused of being satan, but I don't care, someone needs to speak up for the industry.

The correct narrative is that OIL IS TEH DEBIL! But since I work for an environmental consulting company dealing with lots of oilsand work. I feel your pain. We need energy to make the world work, hydrocarbons are the cheapest, most widespread, option out there. If solar, wind etc was really economically superior then that's what we would be using. Of course this being FARK I am sure I will be corrected very quickly.

balfourk:As someone who works for big oil, sheens are nothing new nor are they uncommon. I do not want to trivialize the issue, but a very small amount of any number of substances can create a sheen over a mile is size. The major companies do seriously try to prevent any spill from happenning, no matter what you or CNN think. The smaller independent oil companies are the biggest offenders of breaking regulations simply because they don't have the money to keep up with them all, as it is very expensive to keep double barriers in place over everything that can possibly go wrong. However if a spill does happen my company reports it right away. Many times we have been fined for things that were not our fault, but we were the closest operator so we got blamed. An example is when I was offshore and a sheen was spotted near my platform. The chemical was tested and proven not to have come from my platform, but since no other facility was in the area we got picked to pay the fine. I am not saying that big oil isn't gulity of causing harm, but a lot of the blame that goes towards big oil is unfounded. The Gulf of Mexico is a major shipping center and fishing area, but nobody thinks to ask the cargo or fishing vessels if they are in compliance with regulations. I live on the gulf coast and will likely be there for the rest of my life. I don't want to see it damaged any more than any of you and neither do my co-workers. Big oil has its faults, but we are not the devils that many people make us out to be. I will probably get attacked here and accused of being satan, but I don't care, someone needs to speak up for the industry.

About 12,000,000 gallons of crude oil naturally seeps into the gulf every year.That is on the low side of the estimates too.Got that figure from http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10388&page=191And 1 tablespoon of light oil can make a sheen that will cover close to the area of a football field of flat water.Now a little bit of wave and wind action will reduce the size of a sheen exponentially.

balfourk:As someone who works for big oil, sheens are nothing new nor are they uncommon. I do not want to trivialize the issue, but a very small amount of any number of substances can create a sheen over a mile is size. The major companies do seriously try to prevent any spill from happenning, no matter what you or CNN think. The smaller independent oil companies are the biggest offenders of breaking regulations simply because they don't have the money to keep up with them all, as it is very expensive to keep double barriers in place over everything that can possibly go wrong. However if a spill does happen my company reports it right away. Many times we have been fined for things that were not our fault, but we were the closest operator so we got blamed. An example is when I was offshore and a sheen was spotted near my platform. The chemical was tested and proven not to have come from my platform, but since no other facility was in the area we got picked to pay the fine. I am not saying that big oil isn't gulity of causing harm, but a lot of the blame that goes towards big oil is unfounded. The Gulf of Mexico is a major shipping center and fishing area, but nobody thinks to ask the cargo or fishing vessels if they are in compliance with regulations. I live on the gulf coast and will likely be there for the rest of my life. I don't want to see it damaged any more than any of you and neither do my co-workers. Big oil has its faults, but we are not the devils that many people make us out to be. I will probably get attacked here and accused of being satan, but I don't care, someone needs to speak up for the industry.

Oh, I understand..but imagine the profit that the oil companies (and speculators) are making out of the industry. They can afford to take a hit like this every now and then without serious repercussions. When are gas prices going to come back down after the last hurricane? They jumped 20 cents overnight here because of 'teh refineries might die like when Katrina!' and haven't come back down since. Any inquiry to most gas people just gets you a shrug that says, "Never, because you'll still pay it."

Feel free to say nothing's definite until proof is in hand. But go ahead and hedge toward the site of the disaster and multiple bungled plug attempts as the *overwhelmingly likely* source, rather than just sarcastically air-quoting 'mysterious' and not-so-subtly hinting toward the Deepwater Horizon well.

Don't be paranoid. It's a coincidence. The oil companies are looking for the real cause.

balfourk:As someone who works for big oil, sheens are nothing new nor are they uncommon. I do not want to trivialize the issue, but a very small amount of any number of substances can create a sheen over a mile is size. The major companies do seriously try to prevent any spill from happenning, no matter what you or CNN think. The smaller independent oil companies are the biggest offenders of breaking regulations simply because they don't have the money to keep up with them all, as it is very expensive to keep double barriers in place over everything that can possibly go wrong. However if a spill does happen my company reports it right away. Many times we have been fined for things that were not our fault, but we were the closest operator so we got blamed. An example is when I was offshore and a sheen was spotted near my platform. The chemical was tested and proven not to have come from my platform, but since no other facility was in the area we got picked to pay the fine. I am not saying that big oil isn't gulity of causing harm, but a lot of the blame that goes towards big oil is unfounded. The Gulf of Mexico is a major shipping center and fishing area, but nobody thinks to ask the cargo or fishing vessels if they are in compliance with regulations. I live on the gulf coast and will likely be there for the rest of my life. I don't want to see it damaged any more than any of you and neither do my co-workers. Big oil has its faults, but we are not the devils that many people make us out to be. I will probably get attacked here and accused of being satan, but I don't care, someone needs to speak up for the industry.

we're talking about something that could be BPs fault, with their track record, I'd assume they fubared something again